NHL Commissioner embraces sports betting

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman wasn’t always a fan of regulated sports. Like most high level sports executives, Bettman publicly disdained wagering and worried about the impact it would have on the integrity of the game. But these days, Bettman has stopped worrying and learned to love sports betting.
At the recent Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, Bettman stood on stage with gaming CEOs representing William Hill, FanDuel, and Rush Street and publicly embraced regulated saying, “NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman came out in favor of regulated sports betting at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. Whether or not I thought sports betting 27 years ago was a good idea and intellectually and emotionally, I always had the concern about what we would do to sports. There’s nothing wrong with jai alai or horse racing, but we’re something different. None of that really mattered once the Supreme Court ruled,” Bettman said. And at that point in time, I felt it was our league’s obligation to use the opportunity for sports betting to engage as many sports fans as possible and make sure our existing fans had a compelling experience if that’s what they wanted to do and maybe this was an opportunity to engage new fans who never focused on hockey,” according to CalvinAyre.com.
Bettman went on to explain that the league is investing heavily in both in-stadia sportsbooks and is refining its datastream to better serve the betting public. In describing the NHL’s player tracking technology he said, “The player tracking will create something like 200 data points a second, and the puck will create something like 2,000 data points a second. And if you’re going to do prop betting, you have to have it in real time. This is something we’re going to create, and the only way you’re going to be able to access it is through us.” (Though he made no mention of so-called “integrity fees”.)
In his defense of the NHL as the most gambling-friendly league, Bettman pointed out that the Las Vegas Golden Knights were the first professional sports league to locate themselves in Las Vegas.